mythdrannorfandomcom-20200214-history
Caederic Anthorin
''Caederic Anthorin Name: Caederic Anthorin IC Information Current Age: 37 (born 1340 DR) Build: Somewhat light (Str 12, Con 10), but with a surprising flexibility and dexterity for a human (Dex 17). On first glance, given his height and build, he might strike one as a half-elf, but his ears (if visible) clearly show an absence of any elven ancestry. His features show signs of Illuskan and Low Netherese heritage. He also generally has at least some amount of dark brown facial hair, but typically not a full beard. Demeanor: Generally calm, even when under fire. He seems to possess a remarkable level of self-control over his movements. There is almost an unnatural stillness to him at times that stands in contrast to his sudden bursts of rapidity when in motion. Although at times irritable or difficult to reach, he is nevertheless easy to get along with and possessed of a certain amount of charm and presence (Cha 12 with considerable skill in Persuade). Appearance, Part II (Equipment worn): Generally, he wears a suit of entirely dark grey leather armor with a cloak and cowl of the same color. The cowl is capable of covering his head almost completely, but possesses no enchantment and his face is typically still visible beneath it. He tends to throw up the hood when in danger, in the dark, or in the presence of foul weather, but remove it in sunlight, when in doors, or in relative safety. Two short swords are invariably found on his belt or in his hands. Other equipment is either found in a dark grey leather bag slung over his back or in bags at his belt. He is sometimes also found in the distinctive armor of the Yulash Militia, a unit for which he bears the responsibility of command. He typically wears a uniform which resembles that of a footman, but with pauldrons and cloak marking him as an officer. Religious Dogma Caederic is a cleric of Kelemvor, having only recently become one before his travel to the Dales from the Silver Marches. As for how he became a cleric of Kelemvor, it's rather atypical for him to talk about it. His religious dogma as a Kelemvorite is something he does readily talk about, however, and some seem surprised by his perspective in serving the god overseeing the portfolio of death. Unlike many he has met, he both knows and accepts his role in the cosmic order. He is mortal and holds no pretentions nor desires about being anything but that. He holds mortal life to be sacred and something to be lived fully, even if briefly. He holds that it precisely the transient nature of mortal life that makes it so precious. He believes it is precisely the fact that your life could be taken in any moment that makes it imperative to live every moment as if it is all that you have. It is also why he does not greatly fear death - it will come when it comes and he will meet it at his proper hour. As a servant of Kelemvor, he sees his role as a responsibility to help uphold the sacred institution of mortality. He is not against the raising of the recently and violently or unnaturally deceased (for neither is his church), but will do his part to help maintain the bounds of natural mortality by combating practices of necromancy and various fiendish means of achieving immortality. He also harbors a certain light suspicion of extraplanar creatures - most especially those which are immortal and have never lived a mortal life. He conceives of them as having limited perspectives, much as he knows he does as a human, but in a different manner. The reason for his light suspicion of their judgement is that many immortals do not recognize how immortality limits their understanding or perspective. That said, while he believes that the transient and fragile nature of mortal life lends mortals a unique form of wisdom that naturally immmortal creatures can lack, he laments that few who are born mortal come to realize it or the gift that it represents. His reverence for his Lord, who lived life as a mortal man before his ascencion and now acts as the guardian of mortality, is strengthened because he understands and appreciates that wisdom in a way that Caederic believes his peers mostly cannot. There are certain types of extraplanar creatures, however, that Caederic quite severely dislikes. This is reserved for a fairly limited class of such creatures toward which he harbors specific reasons for the animus. (This can be discovered IC) Character History Caederic's past preceding his arrival in Yulash is a mystery to most. Only Anah and a couple others know the most important details and only Anah the most critical. Some have gone to the trouble to dig into his past, but not discovered (to his knowledge) the most important parts. Most know nearly nothing about him. What is known to most, however, is that he was born and raised in Mirabar and later (starting around the Time of Troubles) found employment as a scout working out of Silverymoon and Everlund. He begun his time in seminary in Waterdeep in 1370 and came to Yulash in 1372. Upon arriving in the region, he quickly became the leader of the Church of Kelemvor in Yulash as well as serving as a chaplain in the Yulash Watch. In time, he was appointed to Yulash's second post-cataclysm Council. On the Council, he pushed through a series of reforms to the city's administrative structure and laws that he helped enforce from his position in the Watch. When the war came, he was elevated to Watch Captain and attempted to use his position on the Council to avert the war. Unsuccessful, he retained his position as the leader of the local Church of Kelemvor when Yulash was occupied by military forces from Hillsfar and the local Watch was dissolved. In the closing period of the war, he negotiated Yulash's independence from Hillsfar and became the head-of-state for Yulash's military government. Effectively dictator, he oversaw the city's transition to constitutional government and to the foundation of a republic. His current position, since the post-war Council has been elected, is that of 'Lord of Yulash', a position whose powers are extremely limited. He command the Yulash Militia, but not the Watch. His duties and powers involve the defense of the republic from threats without and within. All legislative power and most executive power in the new republic rests with the elected council. Motivations and Perspective Caederic's motives are as much of a mystery as his past, if not moreso to many. This is something which he finds to be a source of humor. He believes that a careful observation of his actions would reveal his motives clearly, but that people are often ill-inclined to believe in good motivations from those in power. In short, there are many who do not trust him. They don't trust him because he is extremely judicious with the truth. It is firmly his belief that it is profoundly important to face the truth bluntly, clearly and head-on. He has a brutal rationality and a gritty commitment to realism. But he also simultaneously believes that most people cannot handle the truth in such stark terms and it is often best if they simply never know the brutal realities that sustain their lives. There are also those from whom the truth is best hidden because of what they would do if they knew it. As such, truth is almost always on a need-to-know basis for him, even to himself. He trades in secrets, yet understands that there are secrets even he is not entitled to know and which it would be dangerous for him to know. He approaches everyone with the same perspective. He will obscure the truth unless someone is both able to handle it or needs to know it. And what engenders trust from him is not a tendency to be open, but a similar and brutally realistic view of the world, a competence in handling the truth, and a motivation toward altruism. He has a great deal of respect for any that, like him, wisely look at the world in brutally realistic terms. But his devotion is reserved for those that are just and the fulness of his trust reserved for those who are both wise and just. Caederic sees self-respect, self-control, rationality, competence, logic, altruism, realism, sanity, humility, lawfulness, justice, responsibility, discretion, practicality, subtlety, and cleverness as virtues. He sees self-hatred, irrationality, incompetence, illogic, naive idealism, evil, instability, hubris, recklessness, chaos, vanity, irresponsibilty, indiscretion, and impracticality as vices. He is also particularly absorbed with looking at people in terms of how strong they are in character and will. Self-control, strength of will, self-respect, and responsibility are things he sees as the greatest of all manly virtues and he generally regards those men who possess them with far more respect than those men who do not. Affected heavily by his conservative Illuskan upbringing as well as his own ideas of masculinity and femininity, however, he regards men and women quite differently when it comes to some of these virtues. Men utterly without willpower or self-control he will typically regard as pitiful, dangerous, or both. Women without these qualities will as often be regarded with sympathy or even endearment. When it comes to feminine virtues, however, he regards motherhood and humility as the most supreme and he has the utmost respect and even endearment for a responsible and caring woman - most especially for a responsible and caring mother. Of interest when considering that he looks at men and women in this fashion, however, is that he ultimately sees women far more often as sympathetic figures than men. In that he arguably has a higher standard for men than he has for women, it is easier for men to dissapoint him. Those men who do impress him, however, earn a great deal of his respect. Regardless of gender, however, there are qualities which he sees as universally dangerous, such as hubris, vanity, naivety, and malice. There are also qualities that he sees as universally virtuous, such as humility, altruism, and wisdom. Alignment Caederic is a complicated character and his alignment has always been affected by conflicting qualities. Although now Lawful Good, he does not firmly fit within the description even as it describes his present state better than any other alignment. He is firmly committed to law and to order and is committed to them in both the terrestrial and the cosmic sense. It is his belief, thoroughly, that virtue arises from ordered societies and that civilization and even liberty can only flourish within the confines of well-kept order. He looks at anarchy as a state in which both happiness and virtue are threatened. In the terrestrial sense, his view is similar to that of the terran philosopher Thomas Hobbes, looking at anarchy or the state of nature devoid of the imposed order of civilization as providing a life for man that is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short". The reason for such misery in anarchy, in his view, is that mortals are naturally selfish, cruel, and inhumane and that it is the order of civilization that enlightens them by nurturing them in an environment that forces them to behave differently. He believes that without the presence of police power, men will naturally steal, murder, and rape in whatever degree they can get away with. He furthermore believes that it is precisely such misery that causes police power to naturally arise from any anarchy in order to defend the wronged. He also recognizes that a tyrrany is injust, but is brutally realistic in his view of the world and will often see a tyrrany as at least a step above a worse tyrrany or a barbaric and brutal anarchy. He specifically views evolving a tyrrany toward ordered justice over time as being significantly less miserable for the people it rules than the bloodshed, chaos, cruelty, and vice let loose by a bloody revolution. At least by imposing order a tyrrany might avoid the mass misery caused by wanton theft, murder, and rapine committed by one neighbor against another. His view of cosmic order is likewise resolute. He views cosmic order as necessary and inevitable for a just multiverse and believes that an absense of order in the multiverse would be the swiftest path to misery on a truly unimaginable scale. In defense of both forms of order, he is not merely philosophically committed, but has fought and sacrificed for their cause. He has served as part of the police power out of not simply financial necessity to make a living, but because he genuinely believes in the virtues it provides. He has followed the law even in some cases when it greatly distressed him to do so and pitted him against friends. He has also done much in word and deed to help bring additional order to the communities in which he has lived. That said, he is far from perfect. For in fighting for the ideals of order, justice, and truth, is not always a forthcoming or honest man. He is not above using deceipt in the battle for justice and it is in fact one of his favorite weapons. He is also not above being ruthless in its pursuit. Were he to be a paladin, he would certainly be amongst the fallen. Nevertheless, he is also good. For while he was Lawful Neutral when he first came to this region, he has evolved increasingly toward righteousness and mercy. Where he was once merciless in his pursuit of justice and order, he far more often now shows mercy and seeks the redemption of those who are evil rather than simply their defeat. He still sees moral choices as those which one must answer for and the application of the letter of law as necessary, but has become far more willing to allow the injust the chance to atone for their misdeeds than to simply send them directly to the Abyss without that chance. He has also shown a far greater capacity for self-sacrifice than he did before. Though he still regards his mortal life as a gift he does not wish to waste, he has become more willing over time to risk it not simply to prevent great and powerful wrongs, but to risk everything to prevent injustice toward even a single life in a way for which he will never be recognized. But even for all of his virtue, his mercy, his righteousness, his compassion, there is unquestionably a darker side to his character - as there always has been. Exceedingly few have seen it, though perhaps more suspect and imagine its existence without evidence. Its influence on his behavior has certainly waned with time, but Caederic is fully capable of being cruel, of being heartless, of being ruthless, and even of being sadistic. And he knows that he cannot morally excuse this part of himself as being beyond his power for it is very much entirely within his power and every example of its application is purposeful and intentional. He knows he bears moral responsibility and that he must hold this part of himself in check or find ways to channel its influence upon his behavior. That he does so says a great deal about the measure of his self-control. It finds its most visible outlet in his predatory nature when it comes to the hunt. He allows it life when the villain and victim is genuinely deserving. Caederic is an extremely calm killer and kills often without hesitation or remorse. He also fights dirty and does not believe that "fair play" is honorable in war. In truth, he thinks those who seek "honor" in their style of combat are being impracticle at best and aggravatingly stupid at worst. He often aligns himself with paladins because of their shared goals, but he as often sees them as dangerous liabilities in his favored form of warfare. But the hunt is not the only outlet. Caederic fights on other battlefields and in other ways in which the predatory side of himself comes into play. In a way it is a reflection of the constant battle between the civilized man and the beast. In exercising a rigid self-control, the beast must nevertheless seek ways out. The impact upon alignment is, however, the wrong way to look at it. For a person's alignment is not reflected by the good or evil that is inside them - we are all good and evil inside us - but by the choices we make between our lighter and darker selves. While both dark and light must find expression in his behavior to be healthy, he does so in ways and makes choices in ways that have served good more than evil. His predatory capacity remains, however, because he is mortal and, hence, flawed. Common Statistics Height: 5'7" Skin Tone: Pale Eyes: Green Hair: Dark Brown Accent in Common/Chondathan: Very slight Silverymoon or Illuskan Commonly spoken languages: Common, Illuskan, Chondathan, Elven (Silverymoon accent), Alzhedo (Northern accent), Dwarven (Mithral Hall accent), Celestial, and Cant. Race: Human (Illuskan and Low Netherese ancestry) Left Handed or Right Handed: Right-handed, but partially ambidextrous Birthplace: Mirabar Previous Locations of Residence: Mirabar, Silverymoon, Everlund, Waterdeep, Yulash (at present) Living Relatives: Bregir Anthorin (Father, 67), Ethelinda Anthorin (Mother, 65, previously Ethelinda Hrafn), Aedelfryd Ealdric (Sister, 32, previously Aedelfryd Anthorin), Aldwyn Anthorin (Brother, 30), Haldis Ealdric (Brother-in-Law, 35), Sigrid Anthorin (Sister-in-Law, 24) Partner: Anah Tylor (engaged) (OOC) Information Playing Status: Active Feats (Concept Related): He was trained extensively in a two-weapon fighting style that relies on speed as part of training for a previous occupation to the northwest. He's generally reticent to talk much about it. He has improved on this style of fighting over time with its use, becoming an expert in the combat style. Current Character Level: 19 (Rogue 10/Cleric 9) Current Character Alignment: LG (originally LN and still leaning that way) Category: PC Category:PC